A common question I get is whether someone can patent the use of their idea. Before I can answer this question, we need to be clear on terminology. You cannot patent an “idea”. Your idea must rise to the level of an invention.
What’s the difference? An idea is something more abstract than an invention. For example, it might be your “idea” to have a vehicle that flies to Mars and back in a single day. But if you have no way of actually implementing that idea, then all you have is an “idea” – not an “invention.”
So to answer the question, can I get a patent for my idea, the answer is no, not unless you have an invention.
But what about something more realistic than the space vehicle. For example, can I get a patent for an existing product that does something different or is used for a different purpose. Perhaps . . . if you have somehow modified that product, then you may be able to get a patent for the modification.
This happens all the time with computers. Computers have been around for over 50 years, but patents are issued all the time for “machine readable instructions” (or computer software). Because the software modifies the computer in such a way that is unique, the software rises to the level of being an invention. That is, the computer processor executes the machine readable instructions in a different way than has been done before to cause the computer to perform something new and different. Thus, the software rises to the level of being an invention, even though the software is executed on a computer that is well known.
On the other hand, if your idea is to use a liquid soap dispenser to dispense dish soap instead of hand soap, without any modification to the soap dispenser itself, then this is not an invention. It is simply a different end-use for a product that already exists. Therefore the “idea” of using the soap dispenser for a different purpose does not rise to the level of an “invention” which can be patented.
